The former Top Gear presenter was in hot water last year over offensive comments he made on The Grand Tour

By Rosie Gizauskas

2nd December 2017, 5:04 pm

Updated: 2nd December 2017, 5:04 pm

RICHARD Hammond has spoken out after a controversial joke he made last year about ice cream being “gay”.

In December 2016 while on The Big Tour with fellow ex-Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May, Richard had announced that he didn’t want to eat ice cream, declaring: “I don’t eat ice-cream,” replied Hammond. “It’s something to do with being straight. Ice-cream is a bit – you know.”

Richard Hammond made the comments when on a panel with Jeremy Clarkson and James May

“Anyone who knows me know that I was being serious, that I’m not homophobic. Love is love, whatever the sex of the two people in love.

“It may be because I live in a hideously safe and contained middle class world, where a person’s sexuality is not an issue, but when I hear of people in the media coming out, I think, why do they even feel the need to mention it.

"It is so old-fashioned to make a big deal of it. That isn’t even an interesting thing to say at a dinner party any more.”

When asked if he had meant the comments in a Ricky Gervais, pushing the boundaries type way, Hammond replied: "I don't think I can claim it was as carefully crafted as that.

“I’m not a comic, and when I try to be funny it bites me on the arse.”
Singer Olly Alexander tweeted at the time: “Really tho no wonder some straight guys are f***ed up they can't even have ice cream.”